SXSW 2010: Andrew W.K.
- Posted on Mar 10th 2010 7:23PM by Sarah Sherman
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From bloody album covers to cartoon shows and motivational speaking, Andrew W.K. throws himself headlong into as many experiences as he can handle. His 2001 debut, 'I Get Wet,' provided hard-rocking party anthems for revelers across the world, and the keyboard banger still launches intense music, behind a full band or as a solo pianist, to the airwaves. As he readied for the release of a new double album and the start of his next tour, which kicks off ahead of SXSW in New York on March 16, he conversed with Spinner about legends, wah-wah pedals and why humiliating yourself isn't such a bad thing.Why do you use the name Andrew W.K.?
My last name is Wilkes-Krier. And, actually, I wasn't the first one to shorten it: That was my teachers, not only to make it easier to write but to differentiate me from all the other Andrews. When I was deciding on what to do, I wanted to be a solo act. And when I've loved a band I've loved the individuals within the band and the adventure that they were having. I wanted people to be able to identify with me and I just thought it was easier to do that when it was presented as one person.
So what got you started in music?
My parents asked me if I would like to take piano lessons, and I was about 4-1/2 years old, and we had just moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where [my dad] was teaching at the University of Michigan, and they have this program called the pedagogy program, which is graduate students in piano teaching young kids ... So you're getting taught by someone who's in the throes of their passion. The intensity of these teachers was so over the top that it just, it threw me into the depths of pure musical experience. I felt these waves of physical sensation during these classes, usually while one of the teachers was playing because they were so good, and I said there's something going on there, I mean it was like an orgasm, really!

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